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ATTENTION TO ADULT DEVELOPMENT is a relatively recent phenomenon in psychoanalysis and attempts to incorporate clinical knowledge of adult development into an overall development schema have been fragmentary.
Development is a concept that implies continuity and growth; adult development theory, to the extent that it exists in the analytic field has tended to be discontinuous, vague, romanticized, focussed solely on loss or limited to the socio-cultural at the expense of intrapsychic considerations. Writers seem to have a more consistent notion of adult development across the life-span than psychoanalysts. Goethe's (1944)Faust, Thomas Mann's (1913)Death in Venice or the contemporary " The Color Purple " by Alice Walker (1983) would not have been written without a view of development as lifelong. Analysts tend to support the notion that psychological growth occurs throughout life; and yet one cannot help but feel that the prevailing professional opinion sees psychoanalysis as a prerequisite for mature adulthood. Horney is a minority of one when she writes "fortunately psychoanalysis is not the only way to resolve inner conflicts. Life itself still remains a very effective therapist" (Horney, 1945, p. 240).
The recency of psychoanalytic interest in adult development is not surprising. From the point of view of drive-theory there was little need to consider later experiences, and the concept of the repetition compulsion led to a further devaluing of the role of